Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Cheese Shovel

A funny thing I've discovered in Holland is that everyone seems to be obsessed with what a friend called a cheese shovel (and I tried to call a "uobl za sir") ... ghrooghrle seems to prefer the term cheese plane, cheese shaver and cheese slicer. In any case, it's a strange little hand-held trowel, similar to implements for peeling potatoes, which engenders great feelings of pride and civility among the Dutch.

I just find it strange and a little silly that anyone would bother with a cheese shovel instead of investing in a good wooden chopping board and a sharp knife.

1 comment:

It depends on the type of cheese, but specialized cheese-cutter-thingies can be vastly easier and more convenient than even a nice sharp knife.

E.g. for shaving hard cheeses, it's very hard to cut thinly and consistently with a knife, but almost trivial with a cheese shaver thingie. And for cheeses of a certain gooiness, standard knifes quickly get all bogged down and clogged up...